Failed Experiments
by Itsukashi
Summary: MarVex, in later chapters.  Marluxia loves to visit Vexen in his lab, but only to ruin all of his expirements! Both are tired of this childish feud, and want to swallow their pride and apologize, but that seems easier said than done...
1. Experiment

_Okay, so I felt like uploading one of my stories, even if I think they suck. This **is** MarVex, this **is** shounen ai, and if you don't like the pairing, don't read it. _

_There will also be hints of other pairings, such as Xigbar/Demyx, Saix/Xemnas, Roxas/Namine (and stalker Axel). There might be more, less, eh. _

_Rated T for language and shounen ai in later chapters. _

_Disclaimer: As much as I would love to own Marluxia, I don't own him or any of the other characters mentioned in this story. They belong to their respectful writers/producers. _

_Excuse any OOC-ness of Vexen or Marluxia, and any grammatical errors. I haven't written in a while… _

_-Mo _

Experiment

A soft sizzling noise rang through a large, pale colored laboratory, quickly followed by a putrid stench. The scientist creating the concoction covered his nose and mouth with a small mask, leaning close to the base of the beaker. He let out a satisfied grunt, and then leaned over the silver desk to grasp another beaker of a strange violet color. As the scientist proceeded to pour the purple, sweet-smelling liquid into the other, he felt a soft tug at the base of his neck, pulling his long, sandy-blond hair out of his way. He froze, unwilling to look back at the intruder, who was obviously enjoying pulling the soft hair into a ponytail.

A soft tune rose over the quiet sizzling of the unfinished potion, the person behind the scientist humming 'Hey there Delilah' to themselves. The blond sighed, and brought himself to turn around, interrupting the process of his hair being tied up, leaving it dangling in an unfinished knot at his shoulder blades.

"Marluxia, leave. Now," He growled at the man behind him, who put on a rude pout.

"Why?" Marluxia questioned, breaking the relaxing tune and crossing his arms over his chest in a huff.

"Because I don't want you interrupting me, and I have to finish this," The older man said rudely, gesturing to the still incomplete potion.

"Pfft. You never finish anything, so what should make me believe that you would actually finish this one, hmm?" the rose-brunet inquired, leaning over to rest his elbows on the silver table, shaking quite a few things on the table as well. He offered a smile, which was curved in an almost sinister way, daring the blond to continue his project.

The blond sighed angrily and tugged the mask from his face. "Marluxia, out!" he barked as he thrust his finger towards the cracked open door.

The brunet stood stiffly, raising a hand to his forehead in a salute, "Marluxia, out!" he repeated, mimicking a conversation between walkie-talkies. He turned around sharply, and marched to the door. As he reached the doorknob, he relaxed his shoulders, and brought his arms across his chest. He tilted his head backwards, as to get an angled look at the other. "Vexen, has that ever gotten rid of me?" he said quietly, smiling slyly.

Vexen growled, pulling the mask back over his face, while muttering incoherently. "Fine! Just don't bother me." He barked, pushing his chair closer towards the desk.

He could almost hear the giddy expression that slapped itself onto Marluxia's face, who pranced over to the desk. He leaned over, supporting his hand on his knee, the other brought to his lips in a 'shhh' expression. He winked and watched the scientist twitch angrily before continuing his work.

Silently and slowly, Vexen poured the sweet, purple liquid into the other beaker, a satisfied expression crawling into his eyes at the chemical reaction. The two chemicals boiled for a moment, the purple one eating into the darker chemical. A raunchy smell erupted from the beaker as the dark liquid was devoured completely by the purple, leaving only a boiling substance left in the over used beaker.

Vexen smiled contentedly, leaning back in his chair and tugging the mask off. He glanced over, almost forgetting the unusually quiet brunet's presence. When he saw the confused expression on Marluxia's face, he sighed and lifted the purple beaker. "See this?" He asked, receiving a distant nod from Marluxia, "This is a substance I created, able to eat through almost any other substance… It has very mixed properties, allowing it to counter whatever it comes in contact with. I would go into further detail, but you already look so confused, I might just feel bad." Vexen grinned, swirling the purple liquid in the container smugly.

"It's not like I'm dumb, Vexen, I just didn't waste my life studying hopelessly… Why can't we just cut the enemy up?" Marluxia mumbled in response, leaning his chin on the table, having ended up sitting on his knees to get a better view of the reaction.

Vexen snorted at that, "At least I didn't spend my time _gardening_, a completely useless hobby." He retorted, placing the smoking beaker back in its holder. "And, I'm sure it never occurred to you that not all enemies can be simply, 'cut up'. They're not all as simple-minded and defenseless as you." He spat, intentionally deepening his insult.

Marluxia stood roughly at that, sending a horrid glare Vexen's way. "Are you criticizing my hobbies, Einstein?!" he growled, clearly offended.

"No, 'useless' is a compliment, _Marly_!" Vexen stood as well, matching Marluxia in height.

Instead of a crude remark, Marluxia's expression calmed, and his eyes drifted down to the previous potion. "You say that stuff eats through _anything_?" he asked quietly, reaching down to pick up the beaker gingerly.

"Yes, it does, and don't touch!" Vexen replied heatedly, reaching to swat the beaker out of Marluxia's hand.

A smug grin appeared on his face, just before the searing liquid splashed on Vexen's science table, spilling its contents across the table, dissolving the metal itself, and various other chemicals' beakers. The result was a smelly, messy, bubbling, and steaming pile of chemicals that were slowly eating at the smooth tile floor.

Vexen's bewildered expression entertained Marluxia, as the frazzled blond's gaze shot back from the dissolving puddle, to Marluxia's smug expression again and again. "Wha- You- Eh- MARLUXIA!" the blond shouted, his hands groping for any heavy metal object he could find on his other desks, finding a large alcohol burner. He flicked the burner's switch, the flame flickering on and off, thrusting it into the giggling brunet's face with many grunts and 'Shoo!'s , making noises as if he were attempting to scare off a bear.

Marluxia's laugh deepened, and he exited the room with a slam of the heavy door. His laughter continued as Vexen's 'Nyeah! Shoo!'s could still be heard in the other room. '_Stupid old freak…'_ the brunet thought to himself, the amused smile fading from his face as he turned to leave.

He almost felt guilty, each time he interrupted and ruined one of Vexen's experiments, and usually scolded himself for feeling so. He believed Vexen brought the pain upon himself, insulting him as he usually does. Marluxia was used to the insults, but still seemed extraordinarily offended when they were aimed at him from Vexen.

"Feh.." Marluxia mumbled, continuing to walk down the empty corridor, headed towards his section of the castle.

_So that's the end of Chapter one! Sorry it's so short! The other chapters will hopefully be longer (if I get off my lazy butt and get some writing inspiration!) Please review and tell me of any spelling or grammatical mistakes I should correct/work on. I can't improve if I don't know what I'm doing wrong! _

_If you're going to criticize me, though, do it right. Aim flames at the walls, because they'll listen more than I will. _


	2. Assistance

_Chapter 2 of 'Failed Experiments'! Not my best writing, but I just went with it. xD Forgive me if there are mistakes, I ended up going back and tweaking a lot of things, so if something doesn't make sense, just e-mail me about it, I'll fix it. :3 _

_Umm, not much to say about this, besides that it's not done... and probably won't be for a while. xD I tend to drag my stories on a bit. And... my apologies for another short chapter. D: _

**_Mo does not own Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories or it's characters. This is simply a fanfiction in my admiration of the series, and in admiration of two characters. Kingdom Hearts belongs to Square Enix and Tetsuya Nomura. _**

_Enjoy! 3 _

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Assistance

The only noise that could be heard was the loud slapping of Marluxia's lazed boots against the tile floor, echoing around the large and empty white hallway. A few quiet snickers and mumbles could be heard, although the speakers were nowhere in sight. Marluxia let his aqua eyes wander the halls, until they fell upon a pair of black coats, matching his own, near a hundred yards away. One was topped with blazing red hair, the other with what seemed to be a Mohawk, grown into a mullet as well. He nodded to his redhead partner in a polite greeting. He quickly became puzzled when the two members made sad attempts to hold in laughter, Demyx bending over and clutching his skinny waist. A few snorts and chuckles could be heard, but Marluxia decided to ignore the younger pair. He continued walking the length of the hallway, each step becoming more uncomfortable with the laughter he believed to be dedicated to him in the background.

At last, his boots reached the base of a large, curved metal door, which he yanked open, and due to its weight, with much strain. He allowed gravity to finish the job, slamming the door shut. His face was quickly coated with warm air, and the scent of roses filled his nose. He smiled contentedly, enjoying the false sunlight he was permitted in his garden. As much as he had hoped to relax and enjoy his time in his own spacious field, he sighed, and leant back onto the wall behind him. He closed his eyes, and sank down to the grassy floor, pulling a knee close to his face and resting his forehead on it.

The sudden drowning feeling that came over him wasn't new, and had been appearing at the worst of times. The insecure, uncomfortable, and guilty feeling overcame him, and he allowed his rosy hair to cover what was showing of his face.

Another sigh escaped him as he stared uselessly at the heel of his boot, his mind locked in a regretful and pained state. He always hated it when these feelings overcame him, but he preferred it happened in his own garden than anywhere else…

"I figured I'd find you here…" a voice higher than Marluxia's, though twice as smug, appeared from one of his beautiful sakura trees, just forty feet away.

His eyes widened, although his body didn't move to greet the intruder. He clenched his teeth in an almost animalistic way, reaching his right hand out to grasp at his newly appeared scythe, and charged at the noise. His battle cry was quickly halted when the dark-haired intruder grinned and held his hands up in the air in a sign of innocence.

"Fine. I give," Zexion said in his childlike voice, tilting his head slightly to the side.

Marluxia scowled, and allowed his scythe to disintegrate into pixels, which soon disappeared into nothingness. "What do you want, Zexion?" Marluxia growled at his former foe, still not fully trusting him.

"Oh please, Marly, I wish you'd just forgive me… That silly feud is over, now, am I right?" the young one answered, leaning himself comfortably on the well bloomed tree.

Marluxia snorted, quite loudly in fact, at that comment. "You and your little group wanted me _dead_, and manipulated my own teammate against me. Don't you think I'd be a little bit upset about that?"

"Then why did you just get back from visiting Vexen, who, may I remind you, was on my 'team'?" Zexion replied quickly, and confidently.

Marluxia stared at the younger boy, an irritated and confused look in his eyes. "And exactly what is _that_ supposed to mean?" He snapped back.

"Oh nothing… nothing at all," Zexion smirked, and twitched his nose playfully. "But from what I can tell… it seems the two of you had a fight in his lab."

_Oh how I hate that nose of his…_ The taller of the two thought to himself, scowling openly. "For once, that snout is correct."

Zexion simply arched his visible eyebrow at the insult, allowing the other to continue. When Marluxia said nothing more, Zexion sighed and rolled his eyes dramatically. "And…? Do you want to tell me about it?"

"No."

The shorter one blinked a few times, attempting to pull something out of what he had heard in the conversation. "Then I guess I'll just have to assume the worst," He shrugged, walking slowly towards the door, "And I'm sure Axel and Demyx would find it just stunning to hear what I've thought up." And even though his head didn't shift, a satisfied smirk crawled onto Zexion's face once again when Marluxia stopped him.

"Please," Marluxia said; a tone of sarcasm in his voice, "I don't even want to know what they could have thought up…"

Zexion, once again, raised his eyebrow, although more inquiring than earlier. "What do you mean?"

Marluxia coughed, chuckling sarcastically. He held out his hand, and his reddish scythe appeared once more. He motioned to the blade, "Gee, Zexion, I thought you were smart!" He snapped, "It's a _flower_," he then allowed the blade to disappear, and tugged at a lock of his hair, "_Pink_ hair!" he said again, speaking slowly and loudly as if Zexion was a child. He then held out his arms and circled them above him, "I have a garden! Gardening, Zexion! At least you and Vexen have an educational hobby! Axel's got his flames, Demyx his music, Xigbar- pfft… His _guns_! Not to mention Saix and his sick urges to destroy things…" Marluxia trailed off, "I mean, not even Larxene is as 'feminine' as me! I'm like… the bitch of the whole Organization!"

"Oh, and you forgot to mention the petals." Zexion said quietly, tapping his forefinger to his lip and staring up at the false sky.

Marluxia made no attempt to hide his scowl, "You're not helping me. At all." He stated simply, slathering an even more bitter tone, if possible, onto his voice.

"I never said I would help you- not easily at least- only that you could talk to me about it," Zexion retorted. "It was you who chose to tell me, instead of bottling it up like you usually do…"

Marluxia frowned, and glared after the short boy's back. "So you came here to criticize me, make me feel like a moron, then just walk away?" he called, watching Zexion stop, and tilt his head around to him.

"I think you should apologize. That way you wouldn't seem completely heartless. I'm sure Vexen would appreciate it, despite what he seems like… he's such a sap inside." Zexion smiled, happily, really. Much unlike his usual smirk.

"I don't have a heart." Marluxia replied angrily, turning his head to the side, refusing to look at the other.

Zexion sighed, and turned his head to face the door, "I'm leaving. If you do need my help, I'm sure you know where to find me."

Marluxia watched as the blue-haired boy struggled to open the heavy door as smoothly as he had planned, settling on kicking the still unopened door before disappearing in a miniature explosion of darkness. Marluxia arched an eyebrow at the failed attempt at a smooth exit. He placed a hand on his hip, relaxing his defiant posture, and returned to his spot by the wall.

He turned his body to rest on his left shoulder, and dropped his head against the cool brick, closing his eyes in comfort. After letting out a deep sigh, his mind continued to repeat the previous event again and again, until each word was burned into his memory.

Although able to accept the fact that the younger boy was higher in rank than him, he refused to believe that he was right.

;-;-;-;-;

With a defeated sigh, a frazzled Vexen fell weakly into his padded chair. He closed his eyes, and ran a rather dirty hand over his forehead and face. He opened his eyes while the messy hand was still over his face, and frowned at the sight of it. His gaze fell over to the spot where Marluxia had spilled his chemicals; which now looked as normal as ever, with clean tile and no reference of a chemical spill.

Through the tremendous effort Vexen had gone through to clean up the mess, Marluxia's time with Zexion had already passed, and silence lingered throughout most of the enormous castle. Vexen stood, and wandered aimlessly around his chilly lab. Occasionally, he stopped to fiddle with a potion, tweak a balance, or correct something on his obsessively neat whiteboard.

His hand drooped slowly down the board after correcting an equation, leaving a long blue streak down the board. His eyes seemed glazed over as he stared blankly at the writing.

Truly, his mind wasn't going over his mistake, but his outburst at Marluxia earlier. Mostly he wondered why Marluxia always got so angry with him. Was it that he got angry with everyone on that subject? Realizing now, Vexen didn't see Marluxia much out of his lab…

_Maybe I should stop fussing at him so much… I mean, he goes out of his way to come see me, and I end up yelling at him and pushing him out of my space. Or, maybe, he just gets his kicks out of seeing me angry… although, it doesn't seem so; he usually seems truly offended when he leaves. Ugh… I'm thinking too much on this. I need sleep…_

Vexen's thoughts absorbed his mind, reviewing the same topic a number of times before dragging himself out of the icy lab, and into the thicker and warm air of the castle halls. On the opposite side of the lengthy corridor was Vexen's own room, aside from his lab. He had many different rooms in this section of the castle: his laboratory, bedroom, office, personal library (nothing compared to Zexion's, but a fruitful collection nonetheless), a bathroom, and even a room sterilized for more advanced and dangerous chemical experiments. All of the other members had a similar layout in their section, fit to their own personal fighting styles or interests.

Vexen, personally, preferred the standard white walls and pale blue bed sheets. His room was rather plain, with light shades of blue across the room. The only sign of personal décor was a large painting, hung perfectly even on the wall opposite his bed. As he laid down, he stared at the painting, which consisted of a dark background and a peaceful scene of icy mountain tops, along with a glowing ice cave near the base of one of the mountains. Due to the lighting, it could be safely assumed as a small camp fire, dug into the ice of such a large feature. He couldn't help but smile whenever he saw the painting, and often watched the small light in the bottom corner as he faded into sleep.

His eyes stayed focused on the orange-yellow lighting, but he couldn't help but feel slightly uncomfortable; as if something was out of place. He continued to shift and switch positions, but to no avail. Finally, he sat up roughly, and ran a hand through his hair. A sudden expression of realization came over him, and he reached to his bed side table, and grabbed something to hold his hair up. He tugged the long hair into a loose ponytail, and comfortably lay back down. Although, he did wonder why he had never noticed how comfortable it was before, he didn't question it as his eye lids drooped heavily and he faded into sleep.

* * *

_Okay! So, Zexion makes his first appearance, and acts all cocky and stuff, Insecure!Marly gives us his own little breakdown, and we find out a little bit about what's going through both Vexen and Marluxia's heads… fluff 3_

_Please review! I love getting reviews, it helps me to get motivated to continue a story. So yeah, thanks for reading and... Don't expect the next chapter for a week or three. Dx _


	3. Keep it Together

_-sigh- Finally! It took me so long to write this... I wrote the first page so quickly, then I just had a brain fart, so I improvised. C: It's not so bad... right? Meh. Sorry if it is._

_Disclaimer: see first chapter. _

_(haha, here's where the pairings come in. xD LuxDem, XigDem, XemSaix, AkuRoku, ZexLex, etc)

* * *

_

Keep It Together

Legs crossed, arm set firmly on the arm of a chair whose back was abnormally tall, sat a certain rosy brunet with an expression of absolute boredom. He kicked his toes quietly and yawned to himself. Truthfully, he hadn't gotten much sleep the previous night. After napping in his garden for a while, his back was uncomfortably stiff. Not only would his back prevent him from sleeping, but his mind continued to nag and eat away at him until he was ready to scream.

Marluxia's gaze traveled up the number of large seats, stopping to stare at a few. Namely Demyx, who was now asleep, Saix, listening intently to the superiors words, Luxord and Xigbar, who were both staring at the sleeping Demyx (which frightened Marluxia a little), and finally, Vexen.

The long haired brunet sat quietly in his seat; no angry expression, tapping of the fingers, glaring at any of the other members, only… sitting, twiddling his thumbs. His expression didn't hold its usual grimace, but instead a slight frown and sad eyes. Marluxia rested his head on his hand and watched Vexen slowly shift positions every few moments, moving from biting his bottom lip to tapping his fingers together. Both were obvious nervous habits of his, although he usually paid attention during meetings.

Vexen's eyes stared intently at his own hands, which were now fidgeting nervously; which bothered him. He shifted his left leg on top of the other, scooted up to get a proper posture, slid back down, crossed the other leg, dropped them both, and huffed with his arms to his sides. The more he shifted, the more he felt uncomfortable. He settled on a relaxed position with his arms laid on his stomach.

He resumed biting on his lower lip, and tried his hardest to focus on whatever Xemnas was talking about now; which he could safely assume was the keyblade wielders, but his mind kept wandering. It would wander to his argument yesterday, his time spent fuming and cleaning up the mess that Marluxia had made, and then Marluxia himself. Why he had reacted so sensitively all of the time towards him was something Vexen couldn't explain.

At those thoughts, his coffee eyes drifted down towards one of the lower chairs. He could quickly find the familiar mop of pink hair, as it was placed in one of the last chairs. As his eyes rested upon the top of the seat that was marked with 'XI', he fixated them on the person in it. He was quickly met with sea green eyes, which had a distinct lack of shimmer.

As they both noticed the fact that they were staring at each other, their eyes instinctively shot to another point. Marluxia could almost feel his face heat up, considering he hadn't even noticed himself watching Vexen.

Vexen as well felt embarrassed, and sank slightly lower in his chair. He glanced back towards Marluxia cautiously, not wanting to catch the other's eyes again. He did look for them, though, and was pleased to see that spark of life in them again. He hardly even noticed the unfamiliar smile on his face.

But Zexion did.

As the meeting let out, Xemnas gave a last booming word, which was waved away easily by the other members. Saix, on the other hand, acted with his usual loyalty and agreed with the statement wholeheartedly. With six members already gone, and another four preparing to leave, only three remained in their seats.

One was dazed and droopy-eyed, another was staring off to his left in a sad attempt at relaxing, while the third only watched the two for a period of time, waiting for them to realize the meeting was over.

They didn't. Not until a bulky brunet let them know. His booming voice sounded almost threatening, but had no anger behind it. He was what you could call a gentle giant.

"Zexion… why are they just sitting there?" Lexaeus asked the younger boy, tapping his shoulder tenderly.

"Because they're bumbling idiots…" Zexion growled, still staring at the other two.

"They don't realize the meeting's over with?"

"They do now, big guy." Zexion smirked, patting Lexeaus's shoulder.

At the man's deep voice, the other two seemed to notice the words "meeting" and "over", and jolted to attention. Their heads jerked around simultaneously, just now realizing that they were two of the few left in the room.

Making a hasty escape, Marluxia disappeared, most likely to his garden, and Vexen cleared his throat before trying to obtain a straight posture and a dignified face. To no avail; his face was tinted a pinkish hue from embarrassment. He then left, to appear in his own wing of the castle.

"…What was that, just now?" Lexaeus asked, with a positively confused expression.

"Those two…" Zexion sighed, intentionally giving a half-answer. After receiving a puzzled expression from Lexaeus, he continued. "They have been driving me mad with their bickering for some time now, and I intend to do something about it."

Lexaeus gave him a stern look and a deep sigh, "Zexion, you know that fighting isn't-"

"I'm not going to beat them, Lex!" Zexion snapped, now rising out of his chair. "I'm just going to talk some sense into them. It's disgusting how they're acting! Like children!"

Lexaeus's frown deepened. "What exactly do you intend to tell them?" he asked cautiously, a certain edge of 'I'm not sure if I want to know' laced on his voice.

"Oh, many things…" Zexion said, a familiar sly tone in his voice. "Perhaps some lying, but nothing too drastic. You'll help me, right, Lex?" he now turned to his former partner, who gave him a very puzzled and disbelieving expression.

"You're kidding?"

"No, I'm gonna need you." The younger boy stated, tilting his head downwards as to give the full extent of his 'pout' face to the large man.

Lexaeus felt his nose and eye twitch, and he tried his best to resist, but the man was weak when it came to Zexion. He sighed and muttered some agreements.

"Good! Now, we'll have to think about what we're going to tell them…" Zexion said, instantly perking up and returning to his scheming ways.

/-/-/-/

After twenty minutes of planning and explaining in a deep blue room, Zexion was pacing thoroughly between the spacious walls, his hand placed elegantly on his chin in thought. He turned to Lexaeus, who was sitting on Zexion's bed, his elbows rested on his thick legs.

His jaw was slightly ajar, and he stared at Zexion until he stopped pacing the room. "So… what you're saying is we're going to be playing _matchmaker_?!" Lexaeus questioned, sitting up straight in his seat.

Zexion tilted his head from side to side, as if considering that title. "No… we're just going to be manipulating them until they realize that they don't hate each other. We're not going to be 'hooking them up', per-say, only getting it to where the two aren't constantly yelling, then looking away like puppy-eyed school girls..." He finished the statement with an unhidden grumble.

"Just because you want to meddle doesn't mean you should, Zexion. Look at what happened with Axel and Roxas, after you interfered! That little pyro's a stalker, I tell you. Poor Roxas is constantly avoiding him, and Axel's heartbroken. Maybe you should just let them be…"

"Well, they're different! They're irrational teenagers." Zexion harrumphed; Lexaeus's rolled eyes going unnoticed, as was his own hypocritical attitude.

"So Marluxia is considered 'rational' now, by you?"

Zexion merely frowned at him. "No! More rational than before, yes, but when I talked to him,-"

"You went and talked to him?! Zexion…!" Lexaeus groaned, wiping a hand across his forehead.

"I didn't do anything bad! Jeez, Lex… it's not like you're my dad." Zexion grumbled, seating himself next to the larger man.

"I might as well be, what with all the trouble you get yourself into."

"Aren't you supposed to be the 'Silent Hero'? So be silent, be a hero and help me fix this." Zexion retorted, almost sarcastically.

Lexaeus simply frowned at his friend, slowly thinking over the fact that Zexion was indeed called the 'Cloaked Schemer'. _I swear, this boy has some strange ways to entertain himself, but I just can't argue with him… He always persuades me to do these sorts of things… _Lexaeus mentally sighed, and continued to listen to the ever-plotting young boy.

/-/-/-/

Breath heavy, Marluxia slammed the door to his pale colored room. Having made a desperate dash from the central tower, (it hadn't occurred to his jumbled mind to teleport straight from the tower to his room) he was out of breath

He leaned up against the cool metal of his door, and heaved in one last gasp of breath. What came afterwards could be interpreted as a sigh, or a long exhale of breath. Either way, it ended with a slight smile on Marluxia's face.

_Well… that was… interesting, to say the least…_ His thoughts told him, as much as he wanted to protest.

Marluxia sighed, allowing it to smooth into a soft chuckle as he closed his eyes. He murmured quietly, "What am I doing?" before slumping onto his pale colored bed.

"What am I doing?" he repeated, only more puzzled than before. "Vexen… he's getting to me. Maybe it's Zexion…" the rosy-brunet pondered, moving his facial muscles into various other positions to show his thought.

His voice quieted down to a mumble, eventually keeping his thoughts in his own mind. After a moment of comfortable silence, Marluxia sat up, rather abruptly. He glanced around, down at himself, and proceeded to wipe a hand over his eyes. As he did so, he let out a short laugh, as if aimed at himself.

"Really, what _am_ I doing?" he chuckled.

/-/-/-/

On the opposite side of the castle, isolated in his own wing and laboratory was the pale scientist, who was absent-mindedly dragging his finger over the ring of a beaker. He stared at the beaker distantly,

He allowed his thoughts to wander between two unlike topics: his experiment, and Marluxia. Either one of them was a pain to deal with, in Vexen's opinion.

"Seems like both of them blow up when _I_ screw up…" Vexen mumbled, leaning back in his comfortable chair. His mind dragged back to the meeting, which he had been trying to avoid thoughts of.

He wiped a thin hand over his face, and when it came to rest on his chin, a smile had appeared on his lips. "Why can't we seem to keep it together?" he quietly asked.

Vexen quietly repeated this, although unsure of whom he was speaking; himself, Marluxia, or the other members, who had strived all of their second lives to regain their first one. Humans are insatiable and greedy creatures, and Nobodies are no exception.

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_You should listen to Oh!Gravity by Switchfoot. That's all I listened to when writing this last bit. Can you tell? xD Uhmm... please please review! I appreciate the reviews so much!! 3 I always take recommendations, ideas, etc, I'm pretty open to those kinds of things. :3 _


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